February 2021 Volume 1, Issue 1 Your Organization Vanier College Library Guide: English THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE “At some time in our youth, we must all have wondered why there were so many languages in the world and have felt that it would be much more sensible if everybody spoke the same tongue; then there would be no need for us to learn foreign languages before we could make ourselves understood to a person from another country. And since the idea that a person is a foreigner and therefore different from ourselves rests very largely upon the fact that his speech is unfamiliar, and in the ears of the uninitiated seems just a jumble of unintelligible sounds, a universal language, it has often been felt, would go far towards establishing and cementing friendship and understanding between the peoples of the earth. ” ROOTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE “The contribution of foreign languages on the one hand and the changes in the meaning of words on the other are probably the most important and the most interesting ..., for it is to these above all that the English language, as we know it today, owes its specific character. If we were to compile a list of the more familiar words of foreign origin or derivation in English, we should find that each of the tongues represented had made its contribution for the most part to a particular side of our civilisation or our culture. For instance, most of the words for the commoner natural features, as well as for the commoner forms of vegetable and animal life, are of native origin. So are the names of the nearer family relationships and the simpler kinds of tools and domestic utensils. Sea and ship, too, are English words, but most of our nautical terms come from Greek, Danish or Dutch. French has given us words to describe culinary processes and cooked foods, articles of clothing, articles of furniture and upholstery, as well as a number of things connected with the households of the well-to-do; in fact, terms which denote a certain degree of refinement and luxury which were unknown to the native Saxons. From Latin came ecclesiastical and legal terminology, while a great part of the vocab- ulary of learning is derived from the same source. Spanish, on the other hand, is chiefly re- sponsible for terms which are connected directly or indirectly with trade and commerce, while the Italian contribution has been very largely in the field of the arts. Of the words con- nected with government, those concerned with the administrative side—politics, politician, policy, police, etc.—come from the Greek polis (city), while those which refer to citizenship and to the position of the individual under the administration—civil, civics, civilian, civiliza- tion, etc.—are derived from the Latin civitas (state) and civis (citizen).” Frederick T. Wood. Outline History of the English Language. Laxmi Publications, 2016. EB- SCO INSIDE THIS ISSUE Dictionaries .............................2 Books in Print ..........................2 eBooks......................................3 Books on the WWW ................3 Encyclopedias ..........................4 Scholarly Articles.....................4 Audio Books & Films ...............5 MLA & APA Citation Formats..6 LEARNING OBJECTIVES Find Books to Read Find Interesting Topics for Research Find Scholarly Articles Listen to Audio Books Find Films to Watch Find Citation Assistance
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February 2021 Volume 1, Issue 1
Your Organization
Vanier College Library Guide: English THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
“At some time in our youth, we must all have wondered why there were so many languages in
the world and have felt that it would be much more sensible if everybody spoke the same
tongue; then there would be no need for us to learn foreign languages before we could make
ourselves understood to a person from another country. And since the idea that a person is a
foreigner and therefore different from ourselves rests very largely upon the fact that his
speech is unfamiliar, and in the ears of the uninitiated seems just a jumble of unintelligible
sounds, a universal language, it has often been felt, would go far towards establishing and
cementing friendship and understanding between the peoples of the earth.”
ROOTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
“The contribution of foreign languages on the one hand and the changes in the meaning of
words on the other are probably the most important and the most interesting ..., for it is to
these above all that the English language, as we know it today, owes its specific character. If
we were to compile a list of the more familiar words of foreign origin or derivation in English,
we should find that each of the tongues represented had made its contribution for the most
part to a particular side of our civilisation or our culture. For instance, most of the words for
the commoner natural features, as well as for the commoner forms of vegetable and animal
life, are of native origin. So are the names of the nearer family relationships and the simpler
kinds of tools and domestic utensils. Sea and ship, too, are English words, but most of our
nautical terms come from Greek, Danish or Dutch. French has given us words to describe
culinary processes and cooked foods, articles of clothing, articles of furniture and upholstery,
as well as a number of things connected with the households of the well-to-do; in fact, terms
which denote a certain degree of refinement and luxury which were unknown to the native
Saxons. From Latin came ecclesiastical and legal terminology, while a great part of the vocab-
ulary of learning is derived from the same source. Spanish, on the other hand, is chiefly re-
sponsible for terms which are connected directly or indirectly with trade and commerce,
while the Italian contribution has been very largely in the field of the arts. Of the words con-
nected with government, those concerned with the administrative side—politics, politician,
policy, police, etc.—come from the Greek polis (city), while those which refer to citizenship
and to the position of the individual under the administration—civil, civics, civilian, civiliza-
tion, etc.—are derived from the Latin civitas (state) and civis (citizen).”
Frederick T. Wood. Outline History of the English Language. Laxmi Publications, 2016. EB-
SCO
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Dictionaries .............................2
Books in Print ..........................2
eBooks ......................................3
Books on the WWW ................3
Encyclopedias ..........................4
Scholarly Articles .....................4
Audio Books & Films ...............5
MLA & APA Citation Formats..6
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Find Books to Read
Find Interesting Topics for Research
Find Scholarly Articles
Listen to Audio Books
Find Films to Watch
Find Citation Assistance
“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Most of the books located in the physical library of Vanier College are in the English language. The library uses the Library of
Congress classification system to organize them. To learn more about this system, go to https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/
lcco/. The letters A-Z represent subjects and the letter P represents literature. Sub-classes narrow down each subject. For
example, P represents Language and Literature. PE is everything about the English language (history, grammar and dictionar-
ies). PR is British literature, while PS is literature from the United States and Canada. PY and PZ are young adult and children’s
books, and PN is for general literature such as criticism, poetry, drama, comic books and/or graphic novels.
To find books in the library, go to the catalogue.
To find books in the English language, conduct an Advanced Search and select the language you want (located at the bottom of
advanced search).
To find books written by a particular author, choose Author in the search box and type in their name. As an example, search for
the author Jane Austen. The results you receive will be only books written by her.
To find books written about her, choose Subject in the search box and type in her name. The books you receive will be literary
criticisms and/or an analysis of her writing.
If you know the Title of the book you want, such as Jane Austen’s “Emma,” select Title in the search box and type the title. In a
second box, type Jane Austen. You should receive the actual novel, as well as criticisms of that title. If you did not specify the
author, you would receive many books with the word “Emma.”
Once you have a list of books…
To find the actual book, you need to know how to find it. If you click on the title of one of the results you received, the Biblio-
graphic Record will appear. This record could help you when you need to write a bibliography, works cited or reference page
when you have to write a paper.
You need to make sure it is a book and not a film or a government document (also available from the library). You also need to
know if it is available or borrowed by another student. You also need to know where the book is located (3rd floor, 4th floor or
5th floor). Most important, you need to know the Call Number of the book to find it among the 80,000+ books in the library.
The call number corresponds to the Library of Congress subject headings. For example, the call # for Emma is PR 4034 E5
2013. Remember, PR is British literature, E is for the title and 2013 is the year in which this edition was published.
The books in the library are located in this way: A—DF (F300, 3rd floor); DG—Z (F400, 4th floor); Reference Books (F500, 5th
floor). There are guides at the end of every shelving unit to show you which books are in which aisle.
To borrow the books, bring your selections to the Circulation Desk on the 3rd floor (first floor of the library) and give the staff
member your Vanier College ID (you must have your ID with you). You can borrow the regular books for two weeks and renew
them for two more weeks by signing into the library catalogue. Reserve books can be borrowed for two or twenty-four hours, or
for three or seven days. Please return the books on time because we charge a fee for late returns.
THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY
ENGLISH LANGUAGE BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY
The Vanier College Library subscribes to
the Oxford English Dictionary Online
(OED), the largest dictionary of the Eng-
lish language. If the library had it in print,
there would be many volumes. To access
the dictionary, click on the OED icon on
the front of the library page.
Once there, you can search for any words
in English over the last 1,000 years. It
also includes a thesaurus. If you are read-
ing a book or writing a paper, this diction-
ary is the best one to use. It is available
24/7 with your Omnivox username and
password.
The library also has a table (located near
the Circulation Desk) filled with dictionar-
ies in print that you can borrow. There
are other dictionaries and English gram-
mar books in the lending collection that
you can take home for two weeks. You can
find them by searching in the library cata-
logue.
Another dictionary provided to you is the
Merriam Webster Dictionary, accessible
from the Encyclopedia Britannica data-
base. (under E on the database list). This
encyclopedia also offers biographies ,
primary sources and relevant Web pages.
BORROWING BOOKS WINTER 2021
Since the physical collection of books is temporarily inaccessible, we take the books off the shelves for you. All you have to do is go to the Circulation Desk on the 3rd floor of the F Building, show your ID and the books will be loaned to you. Here are the directions:
1. Sign into KOHA and search for your book(s).
2. If they are available and you want to borrow them, place a HOLD.
3. Confirm hold to complete the request.
4. You will receive an email when your books are ready to borrow (usually a 24-hour wait).
5. Pick them up at the library cir-culation desk (F300) within three days of receiving the message.